


The True Lost Souls

by rarmaster



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: AU - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-21
Updated: 2015-11-21
Packaged: 2018-05-02 16:07:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5254691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rarmaster/pseuds/rarmaster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's still someone else who needs to be SAVED.</p><p>There's still someone else who needs to be SAVED.</p><p>There's still someone else who needs to be SAVED.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The True Lost Souls

**Author's Note:**

> heavily inspired by insertdisc5's concepts for Lost Soul battles against Asriel, Chara, and Frisk! you should check them out here!! http://insertdisc5.tumblr.com/post/133316858210
> 
> also I don't know how to do glitchy text so I did something else instead. I think it works out neat???

 

 

Strangely, as your friends remember you… something else begins to resonate within the SOUL, stronger, and stronger. It seems there’s still someone else that needs to be saved. But, _who…?_

A voice whispers to you. Suddenly, you realize. You reach out, calling their name—

**_Asriel!_ **

****

 

There’s a flicker, and then Asriel is standing there, small again, a kid again, staring past you. His eyes are empty—for what you can see of them past the flickers of pixels in front of his face. He’s distorted, and the way he holds himself is less like a person or a monster and more like a puppet, a body shambling with little will behind it.

“I sh _ould_ have s a v e d th _eM._ ”

His voice is hollow, completely so. His attacks aren’t as dangerous as they were before—they’re just balls of fire, like his parents’.

You ACT.

 

**[ HUG ]   [ PIE ]   [ SMILE ]   [ TALK ]**

 

It’s habit. You go for talk first.

**_Asriel, I understand. I forgive you._ **

Strangely, there seems to be another voice that echoes your words, a few beats out of sync. You feel like there’s someone nodding vigorously behind you. But, it’s Asriel’s turn now, so you can’t look to check.

“KI L L _or_ bE _k i lled._ ”

His attacks still aren’t dangerous enough to be a threat. Your heart pounds, but not because you are scared. Your hands shake.

 _No, it’s not like that,_ you think at him, just as you reminded the rest of your friends. He cannot hear you now, of course, but you feel better for trying all the same. Your turn again.

Now you try smile.

You bare your teeth in the scariest smile you can muster, because if you can remind him of his friend, of the person he came all this way for, maybe he will remember himself. It seems to help. Asriel laughs a little. You think you hear an echo of laughter behind you.

“I will _R E S ET_ th iS world.”

His words don’t scare you as much this time. You’re almost there, you can feel it. You start to choose hug, but then select pie instead.

You offer him a slice of Butterscotch Pie—who cares if you ate the only slice you had while fighting Asgore, if you can restore HP through DETERMINATION and DREAMS, then you can make pie appear out of thin air, too, or something that’s remarkably like it. His shoulders seem to shake at the smell of it. He takes it from you, and starts to eat.

It’s easier to see his face, now, so you can easily make out the tears that roll down his cheeks.

His turn.

“My naME is Asr i el— ** _flowey_** —ASRI—”

His form flickers, a brief second, pixels vanishing so you can see his face drawn in the most horrible smile Flowey ever gave you. You blink, and then he _is_ Flowey.

“Hi! I’m **F L _O WEY!_** _Flo_ wey th—”

You blink again. It’s Asriel. Your heart hammers, and maybe this time it is a little bit with fear.

There’s only one thing left to do. You hug him.

You hug him very, _very_ tight, as tight as you can. He deserves it. He needs it. And he hugs you back with limp arms that slowly become stronger, claws digging into your back. For a second, you feel another pair of arms around the both of you, squeezing you just, as tight, and the sensation is gone.

You pull away. Hope returns to Asriel’s eyes, his memories flooding back! He beams gratefully.

It’s not at you, though.

It’s at someone over your shoulder.

You turn around.

 

 

A child stands there, hugging themselves tightly. They are trembling, hunched in on themselves, like they are trying to make themselves smaller. For a second, you think you recognize them, but, no. Their sweater is too big and all the wrong colors, they are taller, they are…

You ACT, trembling harder than you ever have before. Even harder than when you had to fight Omega Flowey, and this time, it is not with fear. You take a shaky breath.

 

**[ JOKE ]   [ HUG ]   [ TALK ]   [ CALL ASRIEL ]**

You almost call Asriel first, but hesitate. You choose joke instead.

You tell the most terrible, groan-worthy joke you can think of. Toriel and Sans would be proud. The Lost Soul snorts, then catches themselves. Through the pixels around their face, you see their expression shift from scared to annoyed before it is obscured again.

“Wh _y_ am I _he_ re?”

You jump at the sound of their voice. You _do_ recognize them! You didn’t when you saw them, but you recognize their voice, and you recognize their voice very well. They’ve been with you all this time…

Their attack is a careful rain of knives down at you—they fall quickly, but they are spaced far apart, and it’s easy to stand between two as they fall. The attack is short, too, like all of the other Lost Souls’ attacks.

Your hands shake as you choose talk this time, because now, you know what to say.

**_It’s alright. It’s- it’s so good to see you. There’s… There’s no reason to be scared. Everything’s alright, now. This is the end. It’s almost over._ **

They start to cry, and you know it’s with relief.

“…we kIL _Le d_ them A L L.”

You shake your head at them, trying to forget other timelines. You keep shaking your head, as you dodge another round of knives. _No we didn’t,_ you think. _We didn’t, not this time. It’s okay._ If only they could hear you now. If only you’d assured them of this when you’d chosen to talk.

It’s another rain of knives when they attack, more of them this time, but you still dodge well enough.

Without hesitating, you hug them next, because, you know they need it. You _know._

They let themselves be hugged, and after a few seconds, they wriggle their arms out from between you and hug back, _hard,_ so hard, you feel like the breath is being squeezed out of your lungs. You laugh shakily, but you are glad. You only let go when they do.

“It’s you, Fr— It’s _m e,_ CH A—”

Their voice is distorted, the last sounds they make snatched away before they can finish. You aren’t sure if it’s because they can’t remember what to say, or if because something is stopping them.

The only thing left to do is call Asriel. Maybe if he responds, if _he_ calls their name, they will remember. It’s a reasonable thing to hope.

Screaming with all you’ve got, you call his name.

There is a pause, an unbearably long pause.

You can feel your heart and the heart of the kid in front of you beat with anticipation. You hold your breath. You think they do too.

And then…

“…. _CHARA!!_ ”

He sounds far away, but you can hear him well enough. You smile encouragingly, repeating their name after him. _Chara, Chara, Chara…_

They look up. The pixels fall away from their face. Delight spreads in their smile—their memories are flooding back! You grin back at them, glad to have helped, glad to have SAVED _them,_ too. They needed it just as much as Asriel did. They—

There is a sharp tug in your chest

 

 

There is a _very_ sharp tug in your chest, and then everything flickers. An endless black spreads before you, and then, you see someone.

It’s another kid.

Your jaw drops.

Their face is _so_ familiar, their blue and pink shirt, the bandage on their nose, the dirt in their hair. Your heart feels like it’s in your throat, and your stomach has twisted into a very tight knot. You have not felt this sick since Flowey destroyed your SAVE file, ages ago.

You lean back in your chair, pressing a hand over your mouth, breathing hard. You stare at their face on your computer screen.

Frisk is not looking at you, but down at their feet. Their hands are clenched into tight fists at their sides. Their shoulders slump with exhaustion. A perpetual stream of tears rolls down their cheeks.

“My name is _CH **A R**_ — _that’s not my name_!”

Their text box glitches from one to the other. You take a shuddering breath.

Calling them Chara was an honest mistake, between Flowey calling them that first, and you just plain not knowing. You learned better, the longer you spent with them, with the both of them, traveling through this world. You learned to read the lines between Frisk and Chara. You forgot to read the lines between them and yourself.

You hit ACT.

 

**[ FLIRT ]   [ TALK ]   [ HUG ]   [ CALL OUT ]**

 

You consider your options for a long moment, then move your cursor to talk, because that is always your go-to, always the place to start. You hesitate, though. What will you say? You cannot truly feel Frisk anymore, not with a sharp wall of reality between the two of you, but you think they’re growing impatient as you mull it over. You hit enter.

 ** _Remember how far we’ve come,_** you say, and pray that they can still hear you. They could when you fought Flowey. Maybe they can now. You wish hard, willing them to hear, because wishing always seemed to help. **_Remember all the places we’ve been, the people we’ve met. Toriel, Sans and Papyrus, Undyne, Alphys… Asriel… Chara and I… we love you, Frisk. We love you._**

Frisk keeps crying.

“I’m fill— _I’m sorry_ —ed wiTH— _I’m sorry!_ —DETERMINATION— _I’m sorry!!!_ ”

Your heart feels like it’s breaking. Frisks’ turn. You are a little surprised that they attack—because, do they even have one!?—but they do. Their attack looks to be like a stick swiping across the screen. Your fingers hover over the arrow keys, but the attack is blue. You don’t press anything, and avoid damage.

You consider your options for ACT again. You’ll have to select them all to SAVE them… You go for flirt, because you want to get it over with. You’re terrible at flirting.

 ** _You look very_** **_cute… and, hey? Is that bandaid new?_**

Frisk giggles at you, and you breathe a sigh of relief, your heart swelling with affection. They’ve always had a nice giggle.

Their turn.

“Fight— _I don’t want to_ —FIGHT.”

You choke on your emotions as you breathe. You whisper _I’m sorry_ to them, though they certainly can’t hear you right now. It’s not your turn. It’s theirs.

The attack is the same. You avoid it by pressing nothing.

You hug Frisk next.

You hug them, and because now that it’s your turn and they can hear you, you tell them:

**_I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. You didn’t do anything wrong. None of it was your fault._ **

It wasn’t them, it was never them, it was never Chara. Every action you chose was _you,_ not them, never them. Frisk screams through their tears, but you keep hugging, you keep apologizing. Your chest aches.

Their turn.

“I’m okay— _stop controlling_ —with this— _STOP **C O N T R O L L I N G** ME."_

You stop breathing, for a second. They attack again, that blue stick flashes across the screen. You keep your fingers far away from the arrow keys. You get it now. You avoid the attack by not moving, by not pressing any buttons, by not forcing your intentions on Frisk. You want to cry.

There’s only one thing left to do.

You call out.

**_Frisk! I’m here! Frisk!!!_ **

Chara’s voice echoes with yours, somewhere. You can feel it, even separated like this. You keep calling, and Frisk cries harder, and harder, and harder—

“ _I don’t want to be controlled by anyone anymore._ ”

The words fall from their lips uneasily. But, as they say that, they look up. There is life in their eyes, like you’ve never seen before. They look at you with clarity, with recognition… It looks like their memories have come back.

You smile at them as widely as you can when you are also crying.

They wipe their own tears away, and smile back at you.

Chara fades in beside them, and they both smile, widely. Pride and warmth flood your heart, but also, _guilt,_ for all that you have done to the both of them. You hope they will not hold it against you. You really had a lot of fun, exploring this world with them, getting to know them, coming to love them…

 ** _I’m sorry_** _,_ you tell them, and you mean it with every fiber of your being.

“It’s okay,” Chara says.

“We forgive you,” Frisk echoes.

You’re crying so hard you can hardly see them, but you press the image of their smiles into your mind, so you will never forget them.

“Thank you,” they tell you.

You know they mean it.

 

 

When you step back into their world, you do not do anything but follow behind them, invested to see how this story ends, but nothing more. You do not push them along. You do not tell them to do anything. You just watch. You watch them reunite with loved ones, you watch them gather their friends.

You watch all three of them step out onto the surface with everyone they love.

And you let them go.


End file.
